Mission

Data are central to the human services' mission. Likewise, effective information sharing is critical to the success of a coordinated human services system. The Human Services (HS) domain provides a mature and proven process for managing a robust vocabulary for reuse across a number of data-sharing contexts. A high priority of the domain is to create and encourage greater collaboration and service integration among programs and agencies. Service integration or interoperability of human service programs offers opportunities to improve client outcomes, lower costs, and enhance operational efficiencies.

Governance

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) stewards the domain. Participants representing federal, state, local, and tribal HS Communities of Interest provide the breadth and depth of knowledge and opportunities to develop seamless data exchanges. The participants meet online monthly in the HS domain workgroup to collaborate for the advancement of the domain. While the number of members is still growing, key participants include:

Representatives from the following organizations:

Explore HS model content

This word cloud shows the most commonly used Human Services domain elements in the NIEM data model

The HS domain complements the NIEM core with data common to HS, including case, placement, eligibility, provider, employment, and financial data by providing harmonized data elements into the NIEM HS domain data model. It has sought to leverage data from federal human service program offices such as Office of Child Support Enforcement, Children’s Bureau; state and local interagency cooperative projects; and organizations like National Center for State Courts and the American Public Human Services Association.

The HS domain is using NIEM-UML methodologies for development and maintenance of the HS domain data model and federally-developed IEPDs. Non-UML NIEM conformant IEPDs are also accepted from our stakeholders.

Using well-defined data in these contexts can help improve the quality and consistency of the exchange while helping to reduce development costs and time by not reinventing definitions every time a new exchange is developed.

Get involved

While NIEM provides a strong platform to harmonize efforts, the domain’s success relies on community participation and leadership. We would like to collaborate with federal, state, local, and tribal representatives and implementers who are developing new HS data exchanges to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all stakeholders. By using NIEM and the HS domain model content, we can help ourselves and the community improve and expand data sharing, which we know will ultimately improve our service outcomes for the people we serve.